C. S. Lewis
"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."

Ivana Bacik
"There is, for whatever reason, an international tendency to be well-disposed towards Ireland - a tendency that elevates us beyond our actual standing on the world stage."
Notes: Irish barrister and Labour Party candidate

Margeret Lynn McLean
"As I walked back to the car, I chatted with an Englishman, who confirmed that, indeed, sheep are dropping into the oceans around Ireland at a regular rate"
Notes: noting the general lack of fences along cliff edges on Irish farms, "Insights on Ireland"

He comes from a brainy Cork Family.
Notes: First line of a British police dossier on Michael Collins

President George Bush
"This day is a happy one for America. In some places Americans get a little too happy."
Notes: greeting Bertie Ahern at the White House on St. Patrick's Day 2004

Oliver Goldsmith
Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.

J. R. Moehringer
"In Manhasset you were either Yankees or Mets, rich or poor, sober or drunk...You were 'Gaelic' or 'garlic," as one schoolmate told me, and I couldn't admit, to him or myself, that I had both Irish and Italian ancestors."
Notes: The Tender Bar

President Ronald Reagan
Today I come back to you as a descendant of people who were buried here in pauper's graves.
Notes: on a visit to Ballyporeen in 1984

Oliver Herford
"The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scotts as a joke, but the Scotts haven't seen the joke yet."